Unordered List

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Fall 2013 Menswear: Alexander McQueen.

The backdrop for this show was more like a movie set than a traditional catwalk, with models traveling between wood-panelled rooms that had the look and feel of vintage train compartments. But while the decor was old-fashioned, the clothes were all about extreme, disturbing smoothness. Every outfit focused in on classic tailoring (a nod to McQueen's recently-opened Savile Row menswear store), with an overtly creepy tinge thanks to the smooth, almost android-like appearance of the models. Some even wore transparent masks, giving their faces a glassily inhuman appearance to match the sculpted Brylcreem hair.

pics from Style.com unless captioned otherwise.

These outfits are proof that it's entirely possible to make a supposedly sombre black pinstripe suit look loud and weird. McQueen wisely kept the tailoring slim and subtle while experimenting with pattern work, meaning that almost every suit was a recognisable one-off without looking too out-there. The main on-trend detail was the lack of tie, which in this instance actually worked quite well. First of all, a full suit, buttoned to the neck but without a necktie, is traditionally the outfit of nebbish weirdos -- which fits in perfectly with the unsettling, serial-killerish vibe of this collection. Secondly, these suits are far more mature than the typical buttoned-to-the-collar shirt outfits we've been seeing on the catwalks (and on hipster guys. And Jonny Lee Miller's Sherlock Holmes.) for the past year or so.

There's a trick to wearing a collared shirt with no tie, and it's mostly to do with the shape and spread of the collar. As a rule, the distance between the points of the collar should correspond with the width of the tie, meaning that wider ties go with collars that spread out at a wider angle, and so on. If you think about it, this makes sense because the closer together the points of the collar, the less room there is for a tie. If you look at the shirts in this McQueen show, the collars are all long and thin, and point almost directly downwards. If you were to wear a tie with these shirts, there would barely be enough room for the knot.

Also, if you take a look at the outfits as a whole, there isn't really any "need" for a tie. Ties are an essentially functionless object, and these suits are already busy enough that they don't need to be accessorised. Either the gap between the collar and the top of the waistcoat/lapels is so small that the presence of a tie would make it seem cramped, or the collar itself serves the decorative purpose of a tie -- for example, the bright, contrasting red of the collar in the picture below.

Probably the two most old-school nods to Savile Row tailoring are the wide lapels (not usually seen with narrow-spread collars, since lapels also tend to correspond with the width of the tie) and pagoda shoulders. Pagoda shoulders take their name from the smooth, concave curve (like the roof of a pagoda!) formed by the peak at the edge of each shoulder, the best example in this post being the jacket pictured above.

The stained glass patterned outfits were undoubtedly the most modern in the collection, tying in with current womenswear trends for soft but brightly-patterned trouser suits.

The show closed with some of the most old-fashioned ensembles, taking inspiration from 19th-century smoking jackets, evening coats and velvet dressing gowns.

i am giving a testimony of how i become rich and famous today... i was deeply strangled up by poverty and i had no body to help me, and also i search for help from different corners but to no avail. i see people around me getting rich but to me i was so ashamed of my self so i met a man on my way he was very rich and he was a doctor so he told me something and i think over it though out the day so the next day i looked up and i keep repeating what he said to me. " if you want to get rich quick and be famous" you need to cross your heart and do what is in your mind so i tried all i could in other for me to do as he said so later on i told my fellow friend about this same thing then my friend was interested in my suggestions so i decided to look in the internet and i found an email address of this great fraternity (illuminatepriest666@gmail.com) so we decided to contact them and unfortunately we did as they instruct us to do and later they told us to get some requirements and all the rest... so this initiation took us just a week and later on the great fraternity gave us $70,000,000.00,range rover geep and a house to start up our lives.... and now am testifying that if in any case you want to join any great fraternity all you need to do is for you to contact them because they are legitimate and they do as what they instructed them to do okay so email them now at (illuminatepriest666@gmail.com) or call +23489030559425